


Camelot Services

by Fina0319



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Boss/Employee Relationship, F/M, Falling In Love, First Meetings, Gay, Good morgana, Light Angst, Love at First Sight, M/M, Mutual Pining, My First Fanfic, Pining, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2019-10-09 19:25:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17412809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fina0319/pseuds/Fina0319
Summary: Merlin gets a job at Camelot Services, owned by Uther, as an assistant to his arrogant son, Arthur. That might be just his type. As he struggles to get through his days it doesn't take long until he has fallen in love with him. Shame Arthur never would feel the same way.Arthur didn't plan on having a crush on Gwen. Neither did he plan on meeting Merlin. Optimistic, clumsy, stupid, adorable Merlin. But Arthur won't fall in love with him. He can't.Gwaine may or may not be a player. Okay, he totally is one. The only problem? The new guard doesn't seem to care about anything he does to get his attention.Gwen does believe in love. She believes in love at first sight and in meeting 'the one'. What she didn't believe in was meeting him on the first day of work. And what do you do when you have met him?Morgana takes pride in being smart, one of them has to be, but then Leon comes along and ruins everything. Even worse, she doesn't want him to stop.Percival does like his new job. It's just that Gwaine is really annoying (and hot) and he can't figure out if he's mocking him or not.OrThe one where all our favorite character's work for the same company and get feelings for each other.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my first story for this fandom. Or well at all. So tell me what you think, I am not offended by criticism.  
> Hope you will enjoy this, I know I enjoyed writing it.

Gwen hurried into the elevator, just a few seconds before it closed. She barely had the time to give the guard in the lobby a smile. She saw the man smile back at her just as the doors shut and the elevator started to climb upwards. 

She glanced at the numbers that blinked up on the wall. She was to get off on the 17th floor, the fourth from the top, to get to her new job. In her earlier job, she had worked on the second floor, which was the lowest with workers on it. The first only held storage and the lobby. 

She had earlier worked as a researcher for Camelot Services but was now promoted to assistant the CCO, Morgana Pendragon thanks to her good work. Plus that she was at the right place at the right time when the poor former girl got fired but she liked to think of it as universe way to complementing her for working hard. A girl can dream, right? 

Of course, she was nervous to be working for the daughter to the owner of the company, Morgana was often described as strict and hardworking with high standards for her assistant. Gwen wasn’t surprised, if she was in her position she would like to have an assistant that worked as hard as herself as well. 

It didn’t exactly help that she was shy and in general didn’t like meeting new people. Merlin, her best friend and roommate, had spent the entire previous evening saying to her that it would be fine. She smiled fondly at the thought of him as she stepped out of the elevator on the 17th floor. 

When she first met him in high school she immediately had a crush on him, since he was a good guy with a wonderful personality that was just as shy as she was. She later figured out that Merlin was gay and she had let go of the thought. He had told her at numerous occasions that it was for the best anyway, he wasn’t the kind of guy she would end up with anyway.

The corridor she now stood in was wide and empty, just a couple of green plants, that obviously were fake, and six doors. She had only been here one time before but she had done some research and knew that the two CCO’s Arthur Pendragon, the handsome, arrogant son of the owner, and Gwaine Regan, the best friend and kind of cousin, it was confusing, of Arthur, worked here. She also knew that Gwaine’s real cousin, confusing as mentioned, Elena Gawant was working here as well as the CIO. Then there were two other guys, the CFO and the CBDO, Leon Wright and Lancelot du Lac. The last one was Morgana, obviously, Gwen only wished she knew which room she was in. 

As she stood there, frozen in place, probably wide-eyed and with a handful of papers in a folder pressed against her chest, she saw how someone came out from the first room to her left and made a quick turn. So quick that he walked right into her with a force that sent her stumbling backward a couple of steps and made her drop all of the papers to her feet with a low thud. 

“Sorry, sorry, I am so sorry” Gwen said and bent down to pick up her papers cursing herself for managing to fail her first day at work even before she said a word to her boss. 

“No, no that was my fault” the man quickly answered, sounding earnest. He put a hand on her arm and Gwen lifted her eyes from the papers to look at him. She was met with dark, deep, big brown eyes, olive colored skin, messy dark brown hair that was just long enough to not be long, dark stubble and a gentle smile. 

Gwen couldn’t do anything but stare at he carefully helped her up and handed her the papers he still had in his other hand. Gwen was sincerely proud over herself when she managed to take the papers from him and put them on the right place in the folder. 

“Are you alright, miss?” the man asked, leaning forward a little to catch her eyes with a concerned look in his eyes. 

“What? Yes, yes I am alright” get it together Gwen “thank you Mr..?” Gwen trailed off, realizing she actually didn't know this strangers name. He was a handsome stranger with manners but a stranger none the less. 

“Lancelot, Lancelot du Lac” the handsome man gave her his hand and Gwen took it to shake it. The first thing she noticed was that he had soft, yet strong hands and a firm handshake. Lancelot smiled and somehow succeeded in looking even hotter. “And it’s not a problem..?” 

“Gwen” it took Gwen an embarrassingly long time to realize what he had asked for. Lancelot’s looked a little confused by the comment so Gwen quickly continued. “Short for Guinevere”. 

“Ah, alright” the frown on his forehead disappeared and he smiled a little again. Gwen noticed that she still was shaking Lancelot’s hand. Except that they weren’t moving anymore, they just stood there, holding each other’s hands and looking into each other’s eyes. 

She immediately pulled back her hand as if she’d been stung, thankful for her dark skin that made it hard to tell that she was blushing. Lancelot gave her an even wider smile before he glanced down on his wristwatch and the frow was ack with full force. 

“I am afraid I have to go, I have a brunch reservation in half an hour” he said, giving her an apologetic smile. He lightly put his hand on her upper arm. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Guinevere. I’ll see you around” he stayed in front of her a few seconds as if he was waiting for her to say something. But Gwen was too stunned with his politeness that she couldn't come up with something to say. He was almost in the elevator when Gwen came up with something and she turned on her heel to talk to him.

“A pleasure meeting you, too, Lancelot. I’m sure we will see each other” she said. The smile Lancelot shoot her before the doors slid closed was so bright that it literally took Gwen’s breath away. 

So now her only problem was to find out what room Morgan was in. She looked at the door Lancelot had come out from reading the sign that said ‘Lancelot du Lac, CBDO’. She noticed that the rooms were designed in a very smart way. Half of the wall out against the hallway was of glass, so she could look into the assistant's office. The other half of the wall and the door was wood. The wall in between the assistant’s and Lancelot’s offices were designed the same way but the other way around. It was making it impossible for her to look into the inner room but she could see that the assistant was in. She was also pretty sure that the assistant could see Lancelot. She looked around and saw that all offices were formed out the same way. 

She shrugged her shoulders and read the sign on the door on the opposite side of the corridor ‘Elena Jones, CIO’. She kept going. ‘Leon Wright, CFO’ the sign on the door next to Lancelot's read and the door on the other side of the corridor read ‘Morgana Pendragon, CMO’. Gwen took a deep breath before she knocked on the door. 

“Come in” a female voice come from inside of the office. When she came inside the first office, the one she would be sitting in if she didn’t mess up massively today, she saw that her suspicions were right. From this room could she easily see Morgana at her desk. 

She was writing something on a paper with a little frown between her nicely painted eyebrows. Her foundation was light, just as the rest of her skin tone and she clearly had eyeliner, contour, highlight and red lipstick. Despite that Gwen couldn’t help but feel that she looked genuine. Her black hair was pulled into a stylish braid over her shoulder and she had a white button up with a black sweater over and, from what Gwen could see, loosely fitting black jeans. 

Gwen swallowed and made her way through the next door. She glanced down at her own clothes, a dark purple, tight-fitting dress without arms, a grey poncho, barely-there makeup and her normal wavy hair half pulled up. She had been pretty pleased when she left her and Merlin’s apartment in the morning but now she was starting to have doubts. Morgana was simply stunning. 

“Hi, I’m Guinevere Carsen” she said, staying in the doorway. Morgana looked up and gave her a smile and waved her hand in front of her. 

“Come in, take a seat” she ured “I just need to finish this”. It took about a minute until Morgana looked up at her, the frown gone and a gentle, genuine smile on her lips. 

“I heard you made a good impression on Gaius” Morgana stated, referring to the physician for the workplace, Gaius Wilson, Merlin's uncle, the man how had gotten Gwen the job. Without knowing that she was a friend to his nephew, so at least Gwen had done something right to bring his attention. 

“Yeah, we talked three days ago” Gwen was careful with her answer. She didn’t want to ruin things before they even started. Morgana looked down on her papers again and it occurred to Gwen that Morgana might have all of her information on those papers. She wiggled nervously on her chair. Morgana sighed and put the papers down again. This time when she looked Gwen in the eyes, her green eyes were piercing and her whole face was serious. 

“Are you serious about this job?” Morgana asked. She really did seem dead serious and for a few long seconds, Gwen was too surprised to answer and Morgana never let go of her eyes. Gwen eventually looked down, only to shoot her eyes back up seconds later. 

“What? Yes, of course, I am serious about this job, why else would I be here?” she asked confused. Morgana smiled a little, looking down on her desk again. 

“Oh, if you only knew the things people would do for increased salary” she mumbled, shaking her head. She grabbed a paper and handed it to Gwen. "Go through this numbers, learn them by heart. There's a list of the fast dials beside the phone, learn those, too. Just let anyone who comes along into my office today, we can go through that later in the week when you have gotten used to the work” Morgana said and picked up her pen again. 

“Wait, I can start now?” Gwen asked, stunned. Morgana lifted her eyebrows and made a little motion with her hands. 

“You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t need an assistant, would you?” she answered, looking as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “The most important thing for me is that you intend to work hard, which you clearly intend to do so I am satisfied. Now leave, neither of us got the whole day”. 

“Oh, thank you, ms. Pendragon, thank you” Gwen said happily as she stood up. Morgana didn’t even look up when Gwen quickly left the room, a big smile on her mouth. 

She sat down at the desk, her desk, and started reading the list in her hand. She soon realized it was a list of a bunch of names, none which she knew, numbers and email addresses. Gwen understood that she was learning his so she could contact Morgana’s contacts in the future. She looked at the phone. The list beside it was simple enough to read and Gwen went through it. 

1 - Arthur Pendragon  
2 - Arthur’s assistant desk  
3 - Leon Wright  
4 - Lancelot du Lac  
5 - Elena Gawant  
6 - Elena’s assistant desk  
7 - Gwaine Regan  
8 - Gwaine’s assistant desk.  
9 - Uther Pendragon  
0 - Security

Gwen was surprised to see that Uther’s assistant wasn’t on the list. Why wasn’t he there while both Gwaine’s and Arthur’s were. She shrugged her shoulders, trying not to put too much thought into it as she went back to studying the paper in her hand. As she studied the names the smile fell back onto her lips. She had got the job. She was working for one of the highest ranked women in the whole world. And she maybe, just maybe, would get a chance to get to know Lancelot better.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am soooooo sorry for taking so long to write this. I will try to ´be faster with the next chapter.

The next couple of hours were pretty dull. Gwen just started to learn the first twenty names on the list when a girl with long blond hair and blue-green eyes walked into the office. 

“Hello” she said, kindly and offered her hand. “I am Elena, you must be Morgana’s new assistant”. Just as Gwen was about to answer she almost dropped her book and swirled around in an attempt to catch it. It fell down anyway and as she bent down to pick it up she dropped the other map as well. Just as Gwen was about to stand up and help her she stood up, both book and folder in hand with an awkward smile. “I’m sorry this happens to me all the time, Gwaine says I’m lucky to still have all legs left” Elena said sheepishly. 

“That wasn’t very kind of him. And yes, that’s me. My name is Guinevere Carsen but you can call me Gwen” she offered a smile and Elena immediately smiled back. 

“Can I go in?” she asked, waving at Morgana’s door. Gwen tried not to smile when she almost dropped her folder again. 

“Yes, it’s just too go in” Gwen said and motion at the door. Elena smiled and passed. Gwen did another overlook of the phone, pretty sure that she got it now. There was another button on the phone that said ‘office’. Gwen made a mental note to check that later but she guessed that it led into Morgana’s office. So that Gwen could warn her if someone comes etcetera. 

She glanced at Morgana and Elena through the windows. Morgana had the same easiness in her posture as she had when she talked to Gwen. Seemingly rough and at the same time soft. Elena was fidgeting with something in her lap but she didn’t look nervous so Gwen guessed that is just was a bad habit.

It’s almost an hour later, the clock is closer to two, that Elena leaves with a quick smile. Gwen had learned the whole list by heart and was starting to get hungry but she didn’t want to move before Morgana did. As if she read Gwen’s thoughts, Morgana shouted from her office. 

“Guinevere, could you come in here for a moment?” she asked through the door that Elena left open. Gwen immediately dropped the paper that she hadn’t seen in the last ten minutes anyway. 

“Of course” she answered as she walked through the doors. “Can I help you?” 

“Yes, I’m starting to get hungry. Can you run to the subway over the street and get us something to eat and drink?” Morgana still looked like a goddess, even though she had spent at least six hours by her desk and the clock was closer to 3 pm. 

“Alright, what do you want?” Gwen asked smiling a little. She was relieved to come away from her own desk. She knew for a fact that the work would get more challenging tomorrow, Morgan’s assistant was a demanding role in the company and the two different ones she had had over the eight months Gwen worked her always had something to do. Meaning Morgana took it easy on her today. Probably to cheek if Gwen could stand the pressure of a full day soon and Gwen wasn’t about to let her down. 

“The tofu salad, a little garlic dressing. Not much!” Morgana pointed at Gwen with one finger and Gwen nodded. “And apple juice. Got that?” Gwen nodded again, too stunned to do anything else. Morgana ordered food as she ordered anything else, straight to the point, firm and with no time for miscommunications. 

“I’ll be right back,” she said before she hurried out the door, a little scared for her new boss. She went over, ordering Morgana her salad and taking a beef sandwich with BBQ dressing for herself. It took her a few seconds to realize that she didn’t have any money except her own. On second thought Gwen paid for her order with a smile and a “thank you”. 

She was back in the elevator only fifteen minutes later. She put her sandwich on her desk and went into Morgana’s office with her salad. 

“A little garlic dressing” Gwen said when Morgana opened her mouth. Then she smiled warmly at Gwen. 

“Thank you” she said and grabbed the little bag. “I usually eat this if I don’t have a meeting, which is more often than not, unfortunately. Just thought you would know so you could get it without me asking next time Guinevere” Morgana said. 

“Yes, of course. And you can call me Gwen, pretty much everyone else does, so…” Gwen trailed off. Was it wise to ask your boss call you anything but your full name? 

“Alright, I will try and remember that” Morgana said. Something about the way she said it in made it perfectly clear that the conversation now was over and that Gwen should leave so that Morgana could eat her salad. Gwen smiled politely and turned around to walk out through the door, to her own food. Her mouth watered just by the thought of it. She hadn’t eaten since the half slice in bread she managed to force down this morning. 

She started eating without a second thought, managing to get through the whole list that Morgana gave her without a single mistake. She still hesitates in some places but she would just need a few more minutes to get it. 

As she put down the papers her food was wrapped in when a man with long strawberry blonde, wavy hair and kind blue eyes walked into the office. He was was a little longer than both Merlin and Lancelot, and had stubble in the same color as his hair. 

“Hey” she said and gave him a smile. He gave her a crooked, almost shy smile. The way he stood proudly and looked her directly in the eye showed that he wasn’t shy at all. 

“Hi, I’m Leon. Can I go in, I need to discuss some financial problems regarding our partnership with Torsen Inc.” Gwen took a couple of seconds to answer, mainly because she needed to wrap her mind around what he just said. She decided that she liked the way he talked to her. Like she already was a part of the business and knew everything. 

“Yes, she told me it’s just to walk in” Gwen affirmed. “I’m Gwen, by the way, Morgana’s new assistant” she told him because she figured he needed to know. His number was one of the speed dial numbers after all. 

“I figured” Leon commented with a kind smile and then he disappeared through the door to Morgana’s office. 

Gwen blushed and stared down at her papers. Good, and just when she was starting to think that she actually could do good first impressions around here. She picked up her phone to send a quick text to Merlin. 

To: Merlin  
Already messed up here, the CFO thinks I'm stupid in the head. Can you make food ‘til I get home? Around half past 5 I think

From: Merlin  
I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think, and who cares anyway, he isn’t the one you need to impress. I’ll make dinner

Gwen smiled, already feeling better so she dared glance into Morgana’s office. She was surprised, to say the least, when she saw Leon standing by the desk talking, in what looked like, in a businesslike manner and pointing at some papers and Morgana look up at him through her lashes with an almost shy look on her face. 

Gwen shook her head and stared down at the papers again. Her experience with Morgana was that Morgana never got flustered, the rumors said she never even felt emotion. Gwen glanced at her and Leon one more time. This time Morgana was talking and she looked much more comfortable, even though she didn’t look Leon in the eye, but Leon was fidgeting and looking at her with a pining look in his eyes. 

“Oh my god” she whispered and put her hand in front of her mouth, trying to stifle a laugh. Morgana was in love with her co-worker, and not so subtle either, and he was totally in love with her too. Where they together? They couldn’t be, they looked too awkward with each other to actually be serious. But still, this was huge news! If so only that she could have more fun at work. 

When Leon walked through the door a couple of minutes later Gwen had to force herself not to smile too brightly. His skin color, that had been tan before, where almost redder than his hair and he was definitely flustered. 

“Thank you, Gwen” he said, still polite and made his way through the door. He barely made it out until Gwen was hit with a new rush of giggles, that she desperately tried to hide behind her hand. 

“Gwen, can you get in here” Morgana’s voice was stern and Gwen’s laughs immediately disappeared as she made her way into her boss’ office. 

“Can I help you?” Gwen asked. Again, Morgana was sitting by her desk with an important look on her face and no signs of weakness. Except for the almost invisible blush on her neck. 

“Why didn’t you tell me Leon was here?” Morgana was still talking with that voice that showed no weakness. She looked stiff and harch and not at all like the natural, comfortable leader Gwen had met this morning. 

“You said that I should let everyone go in” Gwen made a motion against the door, suddenly feeling unsure. Had she missed some information?

“I know!” Morgana snapped and Gwen jumped back. She could hear the other sigh and rub her face with her hands. “I know what I said, I just… I didn’t mean him” Morgana almost sounded lost and Gwen took a few steps closer again. 

“You want me to tell you when Mr. Wright is here?” she asked softly. Poor Morgana, she seemed strong and natural in what she was doing but meeting one man without a warning was too much for her. 

“Yes, please” Morgana’s rigid shoulders seemed to be less tense and Morgana even gave her a little smile, even though her piercing eyes still looked a little overwhelmed. Gwen smiled and nodded at her before she went out to close the door after her. 

What would she have to do to get Morgana and Leon together?

-o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o-

Merlin heard rather than saw the frying pan hit the ground. He winced when he turned around to look it, thanking his lucky star that he hadn’t put the chicken in it. Again. 

He was clumsy, his mum said that he always had been ut Merlin knew that it only had gotten worse with the years. He had hit his growth spurt when he was 16 and still hadn’t gotten back in control of his muscles. He often thought about not being clumsy but usually was it anyway and it wasn’t like he could think about it all the time. He actually had other things to think about. Like if Gwen was going to be a wreck when she got home or not. 

Gwen was always nervous when she met new people. Merlin had told her it would be alright, she was a charming girl after all, but he was still shaking when she left the apartment this morning. 

He and Gwen had been best friends since high school. Ever since he failed so bad at football that he got to hang out with the girls at the end of the playfield because their gym teacher was a sexist pig. She had talked kindly to him, expecting him to be hurt and he had talked back at her in his sarcastic way. He knew she liked him in the beginning but she soon let go of her feelings when she found out he was gay. A good thing about standing on the sideline was that he could watch Alex in his training sorts and without a shirt. 

Alex was the guy that Merlin crushed on two years of high school. He was a jock with the ‘perfect’ body and he had had blond soft hair, green eyes, a smile that made girls’, and Merlin’s, knees go weak. Not that Alex ever noticed him, he was a nerdy kid that was really crappy at sport and always answered the questions in class. And he was, you know, a dude. 

Merlin had never had a boyfriend in high school, something he regretted later on. He got directly into med school when he had graduated high school and studied pre-medicine for two years but then the savings his dad had left him got to an end and his mother didn’t have much money, to begin with. So he paused his school and worked for a year, putting away every penny he could. That took him through another year of school. Soon it has been a year since he paused again. The only problem was that he couldn’t find a job that paid so much that he needed. 

He did date a sweet kid, a nerd like himself when he was in the first year in pre-meds but he and Xander had broken up after a year because Xander refused to get out to his parent. Merlin never had a big deal with ‘voming out’ and he found he didn’t need the drama. Especially not when his money was about to run out. 

The other man, Malcolm, he met when he was working in a coffee shop. They had hit it off directly and Malcolm was much more Merlin’s type, a jock with blond hair and stupid attitude, if he asked Gwen. Which he didn’t, which may be the reason he a few months later found out Malcolm was married. With a woman. 

After that Merlin gave up dating all together and decided to wait for the right one. Sure, he had a few one nights stand but nothing serious. Not until he is sure, he told Gwen, who had signed and asked him when he was supposed to find him. Merlin didn’t know the answer to that question. But he had to meet him, right?

Merlin was pulled out of his daydreaming when Gwen opened the door. 

“Hey” she said softly. Merlin looked at her with searching eyes. Well, she didn’t seem like a train wreck, at least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I have no idea how to become a doctor but I googled a little and found what I wrote, if it is wrong, correct me!)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm back!  
> Thanks for all the kudos, they literally make my day.  
> Arthur is in this chapter, and just a little bit of Gwen/Lancelot romance.

Arthur hurried through the corridor of Camelot, as the company’s building often was called, and rushed into the elevator just before it closed. Inside was he met with two of his best friends, Gwaine Regan, who he had grown up with, and Leon Wright, who he had met in college when they both played on the soccer team. Arthur had been the team captain and Leon had been his second command, the one to step in when he wasn’t there. 

“We need to hire a new doorman and we have financial problems with Stone&Son because they refuse to pay up until they are satisfied and we can’t get them to cooperate at all” Leon said the same moment Arthur came to a stop. 

Arthur groaned loudly and looked at the papers in his hand. He was on his way out to discuss a new deal with his father and some high ranked company he couldn’t remember the name of and had to fix with their sponsoring of ‘the Knights’, London's official soccer team. 

“I hire the new guard, you don’t need to worry about that Arthur” Gwaine jumped in, looking so smug that Arthur almost couldn’t help but smile. Almost. 

“No, I hire the new doorman, we don’t want some incompetent hottie just to please you” Arthur said firmly. Leon snorted, which probably was the closest to a laugh he came during working hours. “You and Leon go and close the deal with Stone, I want it finished today, we have a lot of things to do next week, and I don’t mean father’s ball because that I just publicity, understood?” he continued. 

His father, Uther, how was the owner of the company, if you didn’t count the 20 percent Stephan Regan, Gwaine’s father, owned, had invited the whole staff to a ball in the building next Friday after a journalist wrote something about workers being treated badly at Camelot Services. 

It was just for good publicity and Arthur did not look forward to going. Especially not since all his father’s friends would be there and the ones how didn’t ask him why he hadn’t a ‘pretty lady’ at his arm was trying to pair him p with their own ‘sweet daughter’. 

“Yes, sir” Leon immediately said as they all stepped out from the elevator. This was what Arthur loved the most about the man, he knew the difference between business and friendship. He was always there for Arthur as a loyal friend, just as Arthur tried to always be there for him, but he didn’t have a problem with taking orders from him while they were at work and never protested. 

“Can you even order me around, we have the same status around here, and I want a hot doorman to guard my door and lighten up my day, mind you very much…” Gwaine nagged but Arthur cut him off. 

“I make sure that he looks good” he promised and left them behind, behind him he heard Gwaine’s victorious sound. 

Gwaine gave him a challenging look when Arthur turned around and smiles. His friend was hopeless, always had been. He shook his head as he walked away. 

Stephen Regan had been a big part of this company in his younger days. Since both he and Gwaine were homeschooled up until high school they had pretty much only met each other growing up and were the best of friends. 

Now they had grown apart a little. Gwaine had grown up to a man that always challenged everyone and rebelled against everything his parents thought was right. He despised the rich life and could sometimes disappear for weeks without contact. It was a little better since he got his current position at the company but he still refused to talk nicely to people how saw themselves of higher standards than the ‘normal’ people. 

He was also bisexual. Arthur would never forget the first time Gwaine had brought a man home. It had been after one of the times Gwaine had disappeared for a couple of weeks. They had been 18 and fresh out of high school. Arthur had seen Gwaine with men before, he had even kissed one himself once, and for him, it wasn’t something bad or even weird for that matter. 

He knew, of course, that homophobic persons existed but he never thought people, his own family, nonetheless, would react in that way. 

Stephan had slapped Gwaine on the cheek before he threw himself Carl, the poor man who stood behind Gwaine, looking terrified. Gwaine and Arthur had been forced to drag him away from the younger man with pure strength.

The biggest surprise to Arthur come, however when he turned around only seconds öater. Eleanor, Gwaine’s mother looked at them with share panic in her eyes and a horrified look on her face while his father looked straight ahead with utter disgust written in his features. 

It was then Arthur learned that men dating men was not okay. 

When he and Gwaine had started at Oxford they naturally shared a room, together with two guys that studied their second year, Leon and Kay. Well, it was more like an apartment with four small bedrooms and a combined sitting room, kitchen and dining room. There was only one toilet though, which proved to be a problem since Gwaine almost always took a tremendously long time to get ready. 

Kay, that was two years older than even Leon, had been dating a girl named Sarah and disappeared to live with her after their engagement after about a year.

They got a new lad, Lancelot, that was transferred there from another university on scholarship. He was all fire about what he was doing, too hard working and way too nice. 

He had matched in good in their little group however, Leon was organized in everything he did and yet never harsh until someone broke the rules. Both he and Arthur were also workaholics but Arthur was messy and neither of them could cook. Gwaine was weirdly tidy but he was almost never there. Arthur still has no idea how Gwaine got out of college, with good grades too, but he did. 

Since then all of them had started working at Arthur’s, and Gwaine’s, fathers firm and when Arthur got the position as COO he immediately got his friends, and the only persons he now trusted, high positions with him. 

Lancelot had gladly taken it, the fire he had shown in college shining through. Leon had been a little more hesitant, he was all for earning what he got. Arthur had him in the same room as Morgana for a quarter of an hour and he had come out with a fleeting look on his face and accepted. Arthur had never been happier.

He and Leon hadn’t really gotten on in the beginning. Leon was a little old-fashioned, he had held Arthur in high respect because of his family potion but never expected him to do anything. 

Arthur, on the other hand, was angry for not getting respect for doing something good but for just being his father's son. It didn’t help that Leon pretty much was the first person he met that didn’t have to respect him, considering he was the first man Arthur met without his father. 

When they had met on the football field Arthur had seen his chance and had indeed beaten Leon with pretty much and he became captain of the team. 

Half a year later Leon tells him that he let Arthur beat him that first time over a drink but that he since then has been beaten by Arthur fare and square many times. 

In a way that was a beginning at the friendship they have now, Arthur was grumpy for a week but since then they have barely had a fight. They have had heated discussions but since Leon almost never loses his temper they haven’t actually shouted at each other. 

Nowadays they tell each other everything, work-related or not. 

“Hi, Laura, where is my father?” Arthur asked the waitress at the restaurant he walked into. The brunette blushed and waved her hand at his father’s usual table. 

“His usual table, Mr. Pendragon” she said, still refusing to look him right into his eyes. He gave her a charming smile and a 

“Thank you” before he went to his father. Uther looked at him with a disapproving look and Arthur couldn’t help but wonder what he had on his mind this time. The last year had Uther given Arthur more and more of the work he before had taken care of himself. When Arthur figured he no longer could take it he counseled with his father and employed Gwaine as another COO, to help with what he and his father hadn’t the time for. 

“You shouldn’t flirt with waitresses, Arthur” Uther said even before Arthur is fully seated. Arthur sat down, arranged himself and put the napkin in his lap before he talked, very well knowing that he would get in much more trouble if he didn’t. His father continued talking. “If you want some lady company you can always ask out the young lady Vivian”

Arthur resisted the urge to grimace, Vivian was the spoiled daughter of one of Uther’s contacts. She was thin, platinum blonde and had lifeless ice-blue eyes and not at all Arthur’s type. Not to mention that all she could ever talk about was the latest fashion in makeup, clothes or shoes or possibly how many people she had fired that day as the CEO of her father’s company. 

Arthur knew that he wasn’t kind to his staff, mostly because he didn’t trust them and sometimes because he was bored or tired or just plain angry with his father or sister. But he had never found pleasure in firing people. 

“I am not interested in dating Vivan, father. Or dating at all in that matter” he sighed deeply and looked Uhter in the eyes. 

“Only in sleeping with every woman in the country, then?” the older man commented, only half high. If Arthur wasn’t certain that he was meant to hear it he would have thought he wasn’t. 

“Father!” he almost hissed, trying desperately not to disrespect his father in any way.

“How’s it going for you on the Stone project, I trust you are making progress” Arthur rolled his eyes. It was so typical for his father to change subjects as he pleased, never allowing Arthur himself to actually talk. 

“Gwaine and Leon are working on it right now, Lancelot and myself will join them this afternoon” Arthur lifted his file with papers and placed them on the table. 

“Good” Uther said, “Let’s move on”.

-o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o-

Gwen was sorting papers. Like a huge amount of papers. Morgana had disappeared half an hour earlier saying she had too ‘interfere’ with a meeting between her brother and father before they crashed the whole company and not giving Gwen a time for when she would get back. 

“Knock, knock” a deep voice said from the door and Gwen hurried to look up- 

“Just us” Leon continued as he walked in through the door, pushing Kancelt that stood in front of him inside. 

“Oh, hi” Gwen blushed and put away some papers so that she could see them. Leon dragged the chair by the door to the desk while Lancelot took the one that already stood there. 

“We brought coffee” Lancelot showed two cups in the air and Gwen noticed a third in Leon’s hand. “I took one with milk and one without because I didn’t know what you wanted” he continued and sat both down in the desk. 

“Oh, thank you” Gwen said kindly and grabbed the one with milk. Lancelot seemed happy with her choice as he fished up a little milk pack from his pocket and poured it into the other mug as well before he drank a little bit of it. 

“Seems like we think alike, Mr. Du Lac” Gwen gave the man a shy smile. immediately looked at her with his warm brown eyes, making her all fussy inside. 

“Lancelot, no need for formalities, Guinevere” he told her with one of his shining smiles. 

“So that’s your full name. I figured it wasn’t just Gwen” Leon cut in and Gwen lushed even more. She had totally forgotten that he was there. Lancelot’s presence made her all warm and unfocused. 

Leon gave her a knowing smile and Gwen looked him straight in the eye until he looked down. They all continued to have a nice conversation for a little bit until Gwen noticed that Leon was sending Lancelot hortative looks. 

“Hey, Gwen. You heard about the party they’re throwing here next weekend?” he asked before she could figure out what they meant. 

“No, what party?” she told them, leaning forward. She loved parties, all kinds of them. Especially to dress up and come to a nice party and just fit. She just loved it. 

“They’re… eh… throwing a kind of ball here next weekend for good publicity. Has Morgana not invited you?” Lancelot jumped in. 

“No, she hasn’t” Morgana said as she walked in through the door. “I was going to do it this afternoon when she actually has a break” she crossed her arms over her chest and gave the two men an expecting look. Both of them looked terrified, even though Gwen noticed that Leon looked a little intrigued as well, but no one of them moved. “Well, move” Morgana said at least and both men were up and out of the room in seconds. 

“I do hope you come to that ball, and if you didn’t understand it that was Lancelot’s way of asking you there and I think he is a nice guy” Morgana closed her office door behind her, leaving Gwen paralyzed by her desk by her words.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's the next part!  
> We get to meet Gwaine, yayy.  
> Hope you enjoy reading it, I liked writing it.

Gwaine pushed Arthur away from the mirror in his office and looked at his outfit. A light grey button-down with several buttons open, a black leather jacket and dark washed out jeans. His hair was loose and went just past his shoulders and his stubble was longer than it should be.

“If you were anyone else I would ask you to change but I know you only would come back with something worse” Arthur commented. Gwaine smirked at him.

Arthur looked really good, he had a dark blue suit with a white dress shirt and a brown belt and shoes. At least he had skipped the tie and left two buttons open so that you could see his manly neck and just catch a glimpse of the muscled chest underneath.

“You look fine, though. Trying to impress Vivian?” he teased the blond and stepped away from the mirror again.

“Lady Vivian has nothing to do with my dress choice” Arthur answered sternly, pulling his hand through his hair one last time before started to head against the door. “You coming?”

Gwaine rolled his eyes but followed his oldest friend out the door.

“You do know that I’m just kidding, mate. I know you don’t like Vivian, even you have a better taste than that” he asked. He wasn't surprised when Arthur didn’t answer. His friend was too uptight to see it as funny. “Did you hire a new doorman, the men I put down there didn’t appreciate the time off they got to do it” he continued as he walked into the elevator a few steps behind Arthur.

“I have a few people in for an interview tomorrow” Arthur said as the doors closed.

“On a Saturday?” Gwaine lifted his eyebrows in surprise. Yes, Arthur used to work on Saturdays, but always lowkey, from his own home.

It was his way to try to let everyone know that he had a life outside of his father’s firm. Gwaine wasn’t about to tell him that everyone knew he hadn’t.

Arthur glanced over at him and Gwaine was the little smile on his lips.

“It was either that or going on a date with lady Vivian. And I am not going on a date with lady Vivian” he commented. Gwaine couldn’t help but laugh. Arthur was good at women. He looked nice, he was nice and he could flirt.

But he was really bad at saying no to them and that said something since he was really good at saying no to about everyone else. Arthur laughed with him.

“Glad to see that you are already having fun, because this is boring” Leon joined them almost the first that happened when the came downstairs.

“I can imagine” is all Arthur has to say and Gwaine just grinned at Leon and put his arm over the man's shoulders.

“Why don’t you go and find a beautiful woman to flirt with, Leon? That is what I call fun and you are a decent looking man. Go talk with some of the hotties working with economics. You are like, their god and surely someone wants to sleep with you” he said and put his weight on Leon.

Leon gave him a very unimpressed look and then turned against Lancelot that just had joined them.

“Lance, my friend, tell Leon here that he has to let off some steam” Gwaine said cheerfully. Lancelot just laughed at him and offered them all a glass with champagne.

“He may have a point, Leon, you haven’t had a girl home in ages” Arthur suddenly said.

“See, even Arthur agrees with me” Gwaine lightly punched Arthur in the shoulder and all of the men laughed.

“It never hurts you know and this is pretty dull” Lancelot jumped in, taking a sip from the champagne glass. Gwaine downed his looked at Leon with a sly grin.

“Of course it is, father refused to let me plan it” Morgana showed up from nowhere, as usual, and Leon took a big gulp from his glass.

She was wearing a long gown in silk with a deep neckline and a dark purple color. One could only say that she was stunning. Gwaine thought so at least.

“I do believe it would have been better if father would have letten you plan this but we needed you to other, more important things” Arthur deadpanned.

“But we do see now that it clearly was a mistake to not even let you look at the plan” Leon offered and Morgana gave her one of her not poisoned smiles.

“Yes, you are practically the queen of this Morgana” Gwaine blinked with an eye at his best friends sister that practically was like a sister to himself. Morgana just rolled her eyes at him.

“Who’s that?” Arthur suddenly asked, staring at the elevator doors. A dark woman with curly hair and a red-brown dress. Behind her, a man with a dark blue dress shirt, brown suit, and red scarf stumbled in.

“I have no idea I have never seen him before” Leon is the one that answered as all eyes turned to the couple in the hallway. Lancelot started to go against them and everyone followed him shortly.

“Not him, her. Who is she?” When Gwaine turned to Arthur he looked almost bewitched with the young lady. He didn’t even try to hide his smirk when he unnoticed stole his friends champagne glass and disappeared to the bar without Arthur’s eyes ever leaving the girl.

-o--o--o--o--o-

“I can’t believe that I let you drag me here” Merlin mumbled to Gwen when they stepped out of the elevator on to the tenth floor where the party was.

“If I hadn’t you would have spent the whole day looking at your computer and eating ice cream” Gwen answered. Merlin rolled his eyes but didn't protest.

That was pretty much all he did since he became unemployed three weeks ago. He had gone on one date and while the guy had been nice he clearly was hang up on is ex. Who happened to be a girl.

Merlin hadn’t anything against persons that went both ways, just because he didn’t find the appeal with dating women didn’t mean that others couldn’t but it always made him feel like the person in question was trying to get over his ex through sleeping with her opponent and Merlin didn’t like being a rebound.

“We have to find Sara, Quinn, and Oscar” Gwen said and started looking out over the crowd. They were the persons Gwen had worked with when she still was a researcher, Merlin had met them one or two times before.

“Shouldn’t we find your boss first. From what I heard you don’t want to get on Morgana’s bad side” Merlin glanced at Gwen who’s eyes yet had to stop wandering the mass of people.

“Oh, she’s over there” Gwen said and pointed at a little group of people standing in between the bar and the other elevator.

She swiftly made her way over and Merlin followed her unsurely. When they reached the group he was quickly faced with some of the most handsome men he had ever met.

The guy a little in front of the others were hot in a defiant way, with some challenging clothes for the occasion, a fit body, long, brown hair going a little past his shoulders, light brown eyes and long stubble.

The man behind him, looking at Gwen as if she was the most beautiful human being he had ever seen looked like a model with the dark hair and eyes and lean body. The man opposite of him was a little longer than them both, with curly strawberry hair and blue eyes.

The man in the middle, also currently looking at Gwen, was the one who caught Merlin’s attention. He was broader than the others and his blond hair was straight and pulled away from his face with something that must cost more than it should.

The dark blue suit he was wearing brought his dark blue-grey eyes on display and when he turned to look Merlin in the eyes he felt electrocuted.

“Merlin!” Gwen touched his arm and Merlin jumped. “Aren’t you even going to say hi?” she asked, looking disappointed. It was clear that she had been trying to make contact with him for a while.

“I’m sorry, I blacked out, can you repeat?” he put both of his hands behind his back and bit his lips, carefully keeping his eyes on Gwen. Gwen gave him an odd look before she nodded and motioned against the woman in the group, who looked stunning in her purple dress and whose piercing eyes terrified him.

“This is Morgana Pendragon, my boss” she said slowly. Merlin rolled his eyes at her before he offered Morgana’s hand.

“Hey, nice to meet you. I have only been hearing good things about you this far” he said nicely.

“What else to expect, she is one of the most leading roles in a company that’s currently rising not to mention that she is the highest ranked woman in the whole of London right know” the blond man, with the amazing body and eyes that heád to come from another world commented.

Merlin dared glance at him, only to find that his eyes, no matter how beautiful they were, was as piercing as the woman’s. He grimaced. of course, the unnatural hit guys were always jerks, what else did he expect. This one looked almost appalling straight, too.

“I don’t think that was what he meant, Arthur, but thank you” Mogana sounded amused, looking between Arthur and Merlin. “This, Gwen, Merlin, is my idiotic brother, Arthur” she added.

“Nice meeting you” Gwen said and offered her hand “my name is Guinevere but everyone calls me Gwen” she gave Arthur one of her easy smiles and he smiled back, a smile that showed all his crooked teeth. Merlin would like to say that it made him look less appealing but it really didn’t.

“The pleasures all mine, Guinevere” he said and Merlin rolled his eyes. Of course, he would try to flirt with her. Of course.

“Hello, friend” he forced himself to sound chipper when he said it and held out his hand.

“We don’t know each other” Arthur said and watched the hand. Merlin glared at him, he could at least take it, for god's sake.

“No” he answered confused. They didn’t know each other, hadn’t met before. At least not in this life.

“And yet you call me friend” Artur continued, lifting his eyebrows. Merlin felt a flash of anger due to his words. He pulled his hand away.

“I was only trying to be friendly!” he snapped, not knowing if he was confused or angry. Probably both.

“By claiming to be something your not?” Arthur looked amused, on top of it all. Merlin frowned.

"Well I thought you didn't have so many friends so I just took pity on you but if you don't want it..." Arthur's eyebrows almost touched his hairline and Merlin couldn't tell if he was surprised or amused. The body language said pissed off, his strong hands fists at his side. But the wide smile was definitively entertained.

"You can't talk like that to me" Arthur stated as if it was obvious.

"I'm sorry" Merlin said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Do you have many friends, my lord?" he even bowed at the end. He stood up straight (ha) again, pleased with his comeback.

"You're a little stupid, aren't you?" the worst part was that it wasn't a question and the irritaion bloomed up inside Merlin again.

He had a sassy reply at the top of his tongue but Morgana cut in before he got the chance to say it.

“Hello, you too, time to cut down the sexual tension a bit” she still sounded chipper and took Merlin by the arm to lead him to pass Arthur who hissed

“Morgana” with a look of fury on his face. Merlin did his best to hide his blush behind a little laugh that didn’t sound real even to him

“Merlin, this is our CBDO, Lancelot” Merlin gave the man Gwen had been talking non stop about for the past week. His former opinion stayed. The man looked like he came directly from a magazine even though he wasn’t Merlin’s type.

“Everybody calls me Lance” he said with an easy smile and Merlin couldn’t help but smile back. He was nice, too. Why couldn’t the men Merlin found attractive ever be as nice as this?

“And I’m Leon, the CFO” the other man told him. Merlin shook his and found Leon had a firm handshake. He gave Merlin an apologetic smile and then lay his hand on Arthur’s shoulder. “I think I saw Stone over there, we should move” he continued.

“I hope to see you again Guinevere” Arthur said as he went.

“Yeah, absolutely” Merlin could see that Gwen was shocked over the comment when she answered.

“Ignore my idiotic brother” Morgana commented dryly before she turned around to the last man in the group. “This is Gwaine, he is one of our CEOs, Arthur being the other one” she presented him.

“Hello, lad. Nice to meet you, no need to care about Arthur, he is a little grumpy sometimes” he said and gave Merlin a big smile. His hand was sinewy so he was clearly fit and he seemed nice.

“Hi” Merlin answered a little shyly. “Nice meeting you Gwaine”.

“Right back at ya” Gwaine’s smile widened a little bit more and then he turned to Gwen. “I have heard a lot about you, you should know” he commented.

“Oh, yeah?” Merlin could see Gwen blush a little bit and hid his smile through tipping his head forward.

“Only good things, I promise you” Gwaine gave her a clap on the shoulder before he, too, disappeared in the same direction as Arthur had.

“Come, Gwen, I should present you to some people here” Morgana said, putting her empty glass on a brick that a guy walked past with. Merlin took the opportunity to take one himself.

“Will you be okay alone?” Gwen sent him a nervous look but Merlin waved her off.

“Yes, of course, go” he assured her with a smile. “Have fun” he told after her when she and Morgana disappeared into the crowd.

It was almost an hour later and Gwen still wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Merlin had been seeing Arthur on many occasions, though, he had even made eye contact with the blonde. He looked away immediately though, he didn’t want the son of the owner, he had figured out after a little while that it was what Arthur was, to think that he was pining. Especially not as long as Arthur had his arm around that beautiful blonde girl no one had bothered to present him too.

He sat down the bar and got a glass of something bitter in his hand. He guessed it was something with a fancy name but it was alcohol so he didn’t question it.

“Why do Vivian always got all of the hot guys?” a red-haired woman that sat beside him said. Merlin had no intention of listening in. But they were very close. And they were talking of something that concerned him, too. Because Arthur was into Gwen and her boss… kind off.

“Because she has a rich daddy” a brunette answered, gulping down a glass of the same type of alcohol Merlin held in his hand.

“Well, he slept with me four nights ago” the blondish woman that sat closest to Merlin said. The other two girls gave her a bored stare for a few moments and Merlin could feel a shiver making it’s way up his spine.

“He slept with us all” the brunette deadpanned and Merlin felt a pang of something in his chest. Not only was this man straight, but he was also an ass. And he had his eyes on Merlin’s best friend.

“Well, I am not being one of the pathetic girls he can just leave behind” the redhead said, steaming with smugness.

“And what makes you different from the rest of us?” the brunette snapped.

“I work for him, as a negotiator and I had a word with a Mr. Stone and his sons. No chance they will have that contract now” Merlin stared with his mouth open. So did the other girls in the group.

“But the firm needs that contract, we will lose loads of money if we don’t get it” the blondish said, sounding as unsure as Merlin was feeling. This just wasn’t right. Fine, the man was a jackass, but to bring down his company? That was one too far.

“Exactly” the brunette slyly said when Merlin left. He had to find Gwen and Morgana. Now.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, here is the next chapter! I was quick this time, huh? But with that said I have to admit that this chapter is shorter than the others. I promise the next will be longer again though. 
> 
> More Merthur in this chapter (yayy :)) but they will start off low key because I want them to be a slow burn. And we get to met Uther this chapter. He is not a good person in this story but anyway. 
> 
> With that said, I hope you'll enjoy reading it!

Arthur took a deep breath when he stepped out of the elevator. lady Vivian hadn’t let go of Arthur's arm all night and her high-pitched voice was getting to her. He wasn’t pleased about the fact that Stone had wanted to talk to him but he was, to say the least, relieved to have a reason to go from the party and Vivian. 

He forced a smile when he met up with Stone and his youngest son outside one of the offices. Leon was standing slightly behind him and Arthur could feel that he wasn’t pleased with the situation either. 

“You wanted to talk to us, Mr?” he said as calmly as he managed. He had spent weeks on this project and they finally seemed to be on the same page this morning.

“Yes, I did, Arthur” his impulse told him to wipe away the spit he got in his face when the man spat out his name as it was an insult. But he didn’t because he was raised better. Kind of. 

“Well, what did you want to talk about then?” Leon asked and took a few steps forward so that he was standing shoulder to shoulder with Arthur. His complete calmness made Arthur relax immediately. He and Leon could do this, they were a good team. 

“You’ve lied to me!” the man spat some more in Arthur’s face and this time he did rub it off, discreetly while he opened the door and showed the men inside. 

When they all sat down, Arthur on his side of the desk, Stone and his son on the other and Leon on the chair in the corner, Arthur took a deep breath and forced himself to not sound rude. 

“Now, can you tell me Mr. Stone, exactly when you think I lied to you?” 

“You DID lie!” the man shouted and Artur felt relief that he now wasn’t so close that he got all of the spittle in his face. 

“I can assure you that Arthur nor I, neither anyone else in this building has lied to you, can you now tell us what’s wrong” Leon spoke up. He still looked calm but Arthur knew his friend. Even Leon was starting to get irritated now. 

“You are all a bunch of liars!” Mr. Stone screamed and stood up. Leon and Arthur immediately copied his position. 

“Please, Mr. Stone, if you just sit down we can discuss this like real men” Arthur said gesturing against the chair. That’s when the door was thrown open and Uther and Morgana stepped in pushing Merlin in front of them. The gangly man managed to stumble on his own feet fall onto the floor with a thud. Arthur lifted his eyebrow and gave him an unimpressed look. 

“I’m alright!” Merlin was standing on his feet only seconds later and assured everyone in the room interested, which, if you asked Arthur, was no one, that he wasn’t hurt. Arthur lifted his other eyebrow, keeping his eyes on the disaster his family just brought in. Merlin, that still was blabbering about something no one cared about, met his eyes for a second and his mouth shut as he looked down to his feet. Then his big, hideous ear turned red.

Uther cleared his throat and then moved to take Mr. Stone in hand. His charisma was so powerful that the man held his mouth shut and took Arthur’s father’s hand. 

“The boy here tells me there have been some miscommunications. I can assure you that we are dealing with it” he said in a stable voice. Arthur sat down. Of course, his father could go in here and fix it in a minute blank. “Morgana” Uther then said and turned around “fire the girl. You know who she is, right?” 

“Yes” Morgana was out the door in a second and Arthur stared after her. What was happening? Who were they talking about?

“You!” Uther continued, pointing at Leon “go help her, seeing we don’t have a doorman yet she may need some help” the last part was directed directly at Arthur but he chose to ignore it. He had more pressing things to do at the moment. 

“Yes sir” Leon gave Arthur a nod and then he, too, was out of the room and Arthur, Uther, Mr. Stone, and his son was the only persons left. 

“Can I leave?” a perplexed voice asked from a corner. Arthur rolled his eyes. That’s right, he forgot about Merlin. He was just about to order the raven-haired man to leave his office when Uther held up his hand. 

“No. Stay where you are” he said in his normal stern way. Now Arthur was even more confused but he knew better than to question his father in front of others. 

Uther started to talk again but Arthur only listened to some of it as he let his eyes wander. Merlin still stood in a corner, a look of uncertainty on his face but other than that he looked fine. Not huddled into a corner as Arthur would have thought but standing upright with his hands intertwined in front of him. His head was pointing toward the ground, thought but his eyes. 

It took Arthur a few seconds to realize that he was staring into the bluest eyes he had ever seen. Merlin’s eyes nonetheless. The young man, that only could be a few years younger than Arthur if not even the same age, was looking at Arthur. 

“Isn’t that right, Arthur?” Uther’s question made both of the men jump but Arthur quickly recovered and turned against Mr. Stone with a smile. 

“Absolutely father” he said, with as much certainly he could manage. When he glanced at Merlin he was staring at the ground and his ear was, once again, red. 

“There you go, Mr. Stone” Uther looked at Mr. Stone’s eyes for a moment with the look that Arthur had called ‘the do look’ ever since he was five. It was the look his father used when he wanted something done and he wanted it now. Mr. Stone held out his hand to Arthur. 

“Let’s shake on it, lad” Arthur stared for a few seconds. Then he took the hand. 

“I will make sure that I have done everything by the end of this month” he said. The younger Mr. Stone took his hand as well and then they left the office. 

“WHAT was that about!?” he turned to his father, throwing his hands up in the air. 

“Don’t raise your voice with me, Arthur” his father snapped. Except that his father never snapped and this was more as a lecture with a slightly higher voice. 

“Well, we have agreed that my deals are my concern, so what are you and Morgana doing here?” Arthur’s voice shook when he talked but he managed not to shout. 

“Well, as I said to Mr. Stone before, this boy here came to Morgana and said he overheard some girls talking about giving Mr. Stone false information in order to make him not sign” Uther’s voice was back to it’s deep, strict tone and Arthur felt like turning around and hit a wall. 

“And why on earth would they do that?” he asked with a sigh. Then he glanced at Merlin, that was looking between Arthur and his father looking a little scared by now. When he met Arthur’s gaze he turned his eyes to the ground but then he looked up again and they locked eyes for a few seconds. This time Arthur was the one to look away. 

“Because you apparently been sleeping with all of them” Uther deadpanned. Arthur stared at him. Not because it was untrue, because it wasn’t, he had slept with almost as many women as it was in the company, but because he never had thought he ever had to hear his father comment on his sexual life.

“I can’t really see why we should let our private life affect our work life” he answered. Uther actually gave a little smile by that. 

“It shouldn’t, which is why you’re not sleeping with women in the company anymore” Arthur opened his mouth to protest, now his father wasn’t just commenting on his sexual life, he was meddling in it, but Uther kept going. “Which is why you are going to get a new assistant, male. That boy” Uther pointed at Merlin and then he gave Arthur a clap on the shoulder and left. 

“FATHER” Arthur, that for a few seconds was stunned to silence, said, in a voice that was both shocked and horrified. Merlin looked just as scared as Arthur felt. Arthur turned towards the door but before he left he looked at Merlin one more time. He just caught the smile on  
Merlin’s lips that fell when he saw Arthur’s face. 

“Do not believe for a second that this is happening” he hissed before he went out through the door. 

-o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o-

Merlin stumbled through the door to his and Gwen’s home, threw off his shoes in a very unfabulous manner and then collapsed on the couch with a groan. 

“Don’t overdo it, Merlin. It wasn’t that bad” Gwen said behind him as she took off her coat and hang it on the hanger and with great finesse stepped out of her heels. 

“I’m not overdoing anything” Merlin insisted, the sound muffled from where his mouth was pressed into the cushion. 

After Uther had declared him as Arthur’s new assistant, hell had broken loose. Arthur had screamed at his father, or well Uther called it screaming, Merlin wasn’t even sure if it could be called loudly speaking. Gwaine had shown up and thrown an arm around Merlin, welcoming him to the job because apparently he and Arthur shared an assistant. It all had ended as it had begun though, Uther had declared Merlin Arthur’s assistant and then left the room. 

Arthur had been mad. His neck had turned red and he had had two wrinkles on his forehead. The right was slightly deeper than the left. In the end, all he had said was that Merlin should meet him on Monday to start his new job. Merlin had been okay with that. He was okay with that. What he wasn’t okay with was that he was to meet Arthur, on Monday, at 7:30 in the morning. Only lunatics wake up that early. And Merlin hadn’t been one of those since he finished high school five years ago. 

“But you will take the job, right?” Gwen asked as she walked further into the apartment. Merlin turned over to his back to give her a look and saw her pull her dress over her head. 

“Gweeen” Merlin whined and put a pillow over his face. “You’re scaring my innocent gay eyes” he complained and then laughed at Gwen’s snort. 

“You’re not one bit innocent, Merlin!” Gwen shouted from her room. She was back not seconds later dressed in a green dress that she often used at home. “Which explains why you looked at Arthur the way you did” her voice was teasing now and Merlion shot up from the couch. 

“I… don’t know what you are talking about” he walked to her and jerked the frying pan she had in her hand from her. 

“Of course you don’t” Gwen still sounded teasing and gave Merlin a knowing look. He stuck his tongue out to her and then reached up to take out some flour, planning on making waffles. Gwen stopped him with a hand on his arm “go, change” she ordered and started to make her way around the kitchen. 

“Well, you should be the one to talk” Merlin said, moving so that he stood in the door between the kitchen and the hall to the bedrooms. “Lancelot actually looked like a model and he clearly couldn’t take his ‘perfect deep brown eyes’ of you” he did quotation mark in the air and then he dashed out the room. The towel Gwen throw at him hit the wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know that Gwaine's assistant is written as a different person than Arthur's in chapter 1 but I come up with this and have a fun idea with it so I think it will be better. I will fix it sometime soon, as soon as I have a little more time. Just so that no one gets confused. 
> 
> I really, really, really, hope you liked it! :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here is a new chapter. I hope you will enjoy it. This is mostly a filler to the next chapter but I am pretty pleased with it anyway.

Gwaine sighed as he turned the paper he had in his hand. In one way he loved his job. He got to speak with people and plan things. He even liked the part most dread for, the all-nighters with work. These were actually the ones with the most fun for him. He was a party animal. Being up all night was his habit. 

One thing that he wasn’t made out to do was paperwork tough. He was really impressed by Artur how could spend hours by his desk without doing anything else. 

Don’t take him wrong, sometimes he was forced to do it as well, and he wasn’t bad at it. It was just that he was a human person and he enjoyed being with other people. He may also be a little bit of a drunk. 

There was a knock on his door and he lifted his head and turned it against the person standing there. He felt his shoulder-length hair flip in a fabulous manner and he couldn’t help but smile. He loved his hair. Shame that it was just Arthur. 

“What are you doing here, I thought only stuck up, overworked losers worked on Saturdays?” the blonde man asked, mimicking Gwaine’s words from a conversation they had have many times before. 

“It is” Gwaine commented, lifting his hands in the air “it just appears that I am one of you this weekend”. 

“So I will not be seeing you at the bar tonight then?” They always met up on Saturday nights at a bar called ‘The Traven’. They being Gwaine, Arthur, Leon, Lancelot, and Morgana. Plus Kay if he ever got away from work. He was an economist at a big company that used him diligently. 

“I will be there before you and leave after, so you need not worry” Gwaine winked at Arthur how laughed and stood up straight from where he had been leaning against the doorpost. 

“I won’t” was all he said and then he made a move to leave but he stopped. “Come down around twelve if you still are here by then, by then I should have picked out the doorman, you should present yourself. He will be working for us after all” Arthur said. 

“I say hi if he’s hot. If he’s not hot you better find another” Gwaine teased, an easy smile at his lips. Arthur’s hard expression didn’t go away. 

“You’ll say hi in any case” he ordered sternly and walked away. Gwaine shook his head. Arthur really needed a nice fuck soon, he was getting tense. 

Gwaine didn’t like tense Arthur because tense Arthur was like Uther and Gwaine did NOT like Uther. The only reason he worked for the man’s firm was his father, that lived back in Ireland with his mother, and Arthur because he and Arthur had been best friends since they were born and even though he didn’t like his type of people Gwaine never betrayed his friends. 

His family, consisting of his dad, Regan, his mum, Eleonore, and his two years younger sister, Brianna, still lived back in Ireland, where his father grew up. He had grown up here in England with his father, Arthur and his Nanny, a lovely old lady called Sarah. Sometimes his father wasn’t even around. 

He had left for the first time when he was 16, ran away and didn’t come back for a couple of months over the summer. He got consequences, of course, but he had also found out that he loved the life that wasn’t the upper class. Since then he had left now and then. He knew Arthur somewhat understood. Not why he ran away but that he needed to do it. So he was in less trouble when he made it now. 

He sighed again and looked at the clock. Around eleven. Apparently, Arthur wanted him to be around to twelve. Or well, Gwaine really wanted to see the new guard, there weren’t any interesting people around here anymore. Not since Mithian had left after getting together with Elena, his cousin. They were engaged now and Gwaine was happy now. He wasn’t the jealous type anyway. 

“Now as good time as any” he said out loud and took up his computer from his bag. He was halfway through season 5 of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and he had the time to watch two episodes now. 

Fifty minutes later Gwaine made his way out of his office and took the elevator to the first floor. He was met with Arthur, standing in the hall inside of the entre. 

With a man that was almost a head longer than him, which was impressive because Arthur was almost 6’1. The man had short blonde-brown hair and a little stubble in the same color. But what caught Gwaine’s attention was the arms. 

The man was board, fit even, and he wore a black vest with black suit trousers, a black suit, and white button up. None of that made his muscles less noticeable than if he had been shirtless and Gwaine all but drooled at the sight. Fine that he normally liked men in his own size, so that he could fight for the top position, but sometimes, on a few occasions, he liked to be manhandled in bed. Owned, small. And that was exactly what this man made him want. 

Badly. 

And the arms. They were powerful and fit and all muscles and Gwaine couldn’t take his eyes off them. 

Not until he looked up and was met with the kindest sky blue eyes he had ever seen. 

“Ah, nice of you to join us” Arthur said, all business-y and motioned against Gwaine with a hand. At least Gwaine thought Arthur motioned against him, he didn’t take his eyes off the man long enough to figure out. “Percival, this is my partner in crime and our other COO, Gwaine Regan” Arthur continued. 

“Hey” Gwaine commented, throwing his flawless hair over his shoulder before he offered a hand and a friendly smile. “I’m Gwaine, like the princess told you”. 

Percival’s confused look would have been funny if it wasn’t for the fact that as he pulled his eyebrows together every muscle in his neck flexed and Gwaine couldn’t stop himself from looking at it. Resisting the urge to lick his lips. 

“Percival Stronghold” the large man, Percival, said when he realized Gwaine still offered his hand, blushing and looking a little ashamed. 

“Pleasure to meet you, nice to know that our doors will be guarded by someone fit to do the job” Gwaine gave him a big smile. He saw Arthur shake is head in the background. 

“Em, yeah” Percival’s blush rushed down his neck and he dropped the eye contact. “Mr. Pendragon here just made me a deal so I will do the best I can”. 

“Arthur” the blonde man cut in, giving Gwaine a warning look, he didn’t like it when Gwaine ‘distracted’ the staff. It wasn’t like he could help it, he was just naturally stunning, mind you, Arthur. 

The smile that took form on Percival’s face when Arthur said his name was dazzling. 

“Arthur” he repeated and he looked like a schoolgirl that just met her crush. It was Gwaine’s turn to glare at Arthur. 

-o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o-

Arthur had to shake his head when he thought of the glare Gwaine had given him. He had met up with Percival this morning after he had gotten a lot of CVs in his inbox the last couple of days. Some better than others. 

Percival’s hadn’t been the best but Arthur had thought of him as most appropriate after he had run a few background checks. Not to mention that he instinctively had liked the man. The impression hadn’t faltered when he first met the man. 

He was big as a horse and Arthur had a hard time imagining people wanting to pick a fight with him. Over that he was one of the most kind-hearted men Arthur had met in a while and Arthur had always liked that trait in an employee. In contrast to his father who liked the heartless. But Arthur felt confident in his choice of a doorman. 

If Gwaine’s eyes at Percival had been anything to go with he had even satisfied he needs. 

“You look pleased with yourself” Morgana commented when she walked into the kitchen. She lived in the apartment under Arthur but they often ended up in the same place after their shifts. 

“Found a doorman today. He starts Monday” Arthur replayed and leaned back on the chair he was sitting on, arms crossed over his chest. 

“Was he hot?” Morgana asked as she picked up a menu of Arthur’s favorite pizza place and dialed the number. “The usual?”

“Yes” it was rarely someone of them cooked so they usually had take-out. Their father had cooks that would come up with almost anything they wanted but Morgana loathed they ide of using them for their ‘lower status’ and Arthur himself wasn’t that psyched to let his father have control over yet another thing in his life. 

“Hot, huh?” Morgana asked when she hung up. 

“Gwaine sure thought so, he looked like he just got an early Christmas present. Even though I think he is in over his head this time. Percival didn’t strike me to do casual and he seemed straight, too” Arthur commented, standing up to take get himself a drink. 

“Well, you’ve never been good at distinguishing that, have you?” she asked teasingly. Arthur ignored her and offered her a glass. 

“Can you sit in a meeting with Jones next week? I barely have time, especially not with a new assistant and normally I would go to Gwaine but he has to finish the work with Carsen’s company” Morgana gave him a long look as they made their way to the comfortable couch in the too big sitting room. 

“And you assume I have the time?” she commented dryly. Arthur opened his mouth as the door swung open and Gwaine barged in, throwing himself on the couch, putting his head in Morgana’s lap. 

“I can always ask Leon to do it alone” Arthur continued as if nothing had happened. Gwaine snatched his drink. 

“Yes, give it to Leon, he got it, such an organized man” Gwaine taunted and gulped down the content. 

“No, it’s okay. I can… I can go” Morgana said, lifting her hand so that Gwaine couldn't take her glass. Gwaine sighed and went to the kitchen, likely to get one of Arthur’s bottles of not so cheap alcohol but Artur couldn’t bring himself to care. “And Leon will be there, too. Right?” Morgana continued, fiddling with her shirt, Arthur thought it was weird, Morgana never fiddled. She was a lady after all. 

“Yes, no need to worry, he has it under control. You are just better at that” Arthur said calmly, assuming Morgana was nervous for being unprepared. 

“Okay, good” Morgana said, her normal sly smile on her face. Arthur shook his head. He will never understand her. 

“So you are sending Leon and Morgana on your meeting. Are you seriously thinking that they get something done?” Gwaine asked, coming back through the door. In the corner of his eye, Arthur saw Morgana glaring at him. Gwaine offered him a glass that he took a sip of. 

“They are good negotiators, I’m sure that they get a good deal” Arthur said. “The company needs it” he added, giving Morgana a meaning look. She rolled her eyes and took a sip of her own glass. Arthur could have sworn that she smiled.

“If you say so” Gwaine laughed and shook his head. Arthur ignored him, Gwaine had his peculiarities after all.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin's first day at work. We get a little more Merthur (yayy) and Merlin gets to meet Percival. We see a little more of Merlin and Gwen's friendship and Gwen and Morgana are starting to become friends!
> 
> But I have t warn you, this chapter is more like a filler.

Merlin ran to the door. He was late. Okay only late by 3 minutes this far but still late. Arthur was going to kill him. Or well maybe not kill him but anyway, it wasn’t a good impression and Merlin needed to make a good impression for this work. Yeah, work… That’s right.  

 

He still couldn’t believe Gwen actually had left without him. She was evil. He planned on finding her on his lunch break and give her a piece of his mind. He just needed to make it until lunch first. 

 

He stopped inside the doors to the big building. Alright, he almost fell over inside of the doors but a man caught him. A whole house of a man.

 

“Thank you” he mumbled. Straightening himself to look into kind blue eyes. The man was attractive. Not Merlin’s type of attractive but still, he looked nice.  

 

“No problem. Am I allowed to ask where you are going in such a hurry” the man dusted of Merlin’s shoulder and Merlin almost fell over again from the force of it. 

 

“Well, yeah, you see…” Merlin stuttered and then he cleared his throat. “I am Arthur and Gwaine’s new assistant” he said, trying to sound confident. He didn’t think he succeeded. “Do you… where should I go?” he added, waving a hand at the elevator. 

 

“Ah, yes” the huge man said, giving Merlin a Sympathetic look. “Arthur has been looking for you. It’s the 17th floor” he continued. Merlin’s heart made its way up to his throat. This was not a good start of the day. He darted into the elevator, pressing the button with the right number. 

 

“Ah, hello Merlin. It seems like I’m not the only one being late” a voice said behind him and Merlin jumped. He turned around quickly, managing to hit his head against the elevator doors in the movement. 

 

“Ow!” he let out, rubbing the backside of his head with his hand. “Gwaine, what are you doing here?!” he snapped. Likely a little too rudely to be talking to his second boss but this was turning out to be a really bad day. And Gwaine was late too!

 

”I work here. I’m your boss, remember?” Gwaine’s voice was kind and Merlin glared a little at him. This really wasn’t a good day.

 

“Hard to forget” he mumbled under his breath, still with his hand pressed against his head. 

 

“I’m fine with you talking like that but I’m pretty sure Arthur won’t be” Gwaine commented. Merlin straightened his back and gave Gwaine a small smile. He was right, after all. 

 

“When do I get to work for you anyway?” he asked, suddenly hopeful. Gwaine sounded nice after all. And he didn’t get a crush on Gwaine the same size as the building the first time he laid eyes on him. 

 

“Wednesday and Friday morning. Arthur got you the rest of the time” Gwaine said in the same moment as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. “Looking forward to it” the brunette said, waving at Merlin when he disappeared through the door. 

 

Merlin looked after him until the elevator door started to slide shut and then realized this was his floor, too. He dove forward, managing to get out without getting stuck but stumbled on his feet and ended up face down on the red mat covering the floor. 

 

“Ah, there you are, I’ve been looking for you” a voice said from over him and Merlin scrambled to his feet only to be met by Arthur standing only centimeters in front of him. Merlin stumbled backward a couple of steps and then came to a stop, staring at his own feet. Really not a good day. “You done?”

 

“Yeah. Yes. Yes, I am.” Merlin answered, still not daring to look at the other man. 

 

“Good, this way” Merlin glanced at Arthur as he turned on his heels and walked through the door. 

 

“Wow” he mumbled as he followed in Arthur's heels. Never before had he met a man so unfaced by his clumsiness, the blonde hadn’t even asked how he was doing. 

 

“Close the door” Arthus sat by the same desk he had done when Uther so kindly had given Merlin the job. He was dressed in a light pink shirt and grey, pressed Chinos with brown leather shoes. He looked good. 

 

Suddenly his own red henley with beige Khakis and a blue scarf didn’t seem as stylish as it had this morning. But Gwen had assured him that he was dressing up enough for the code when he had shown her the evening before and he had seen multiple people not wearing a dress shirt on his way out of here a couple of days ago. Maybe the dress code was different for the owner’s son. 

 

“So, Merlin. I trust you have written a CV” Arthur said suddenly and Merlin is jerked from his reflections 

 

“What? No! I’m already hired” Merlin wanted to hold up his hands, or maybe bow. Or whatever would get Arthur to understand that he meant well. And at the same time he wanted to whack Arthur across the face because who asks for a CV of a person that already was hired?

 

“And that means I can’t fire you?” Arthur moved a few papers around on his desk, not even looking at Merlin. Merlin glared at his head, fighting the urge to stick out his tongue. 

 

“Not if you haven't stopped crawling after your father since Friday” he mumbled under his breath. 

 

“What was that?” The papers hit the desk with a thud and suddenly Merlin was staring into piercing blue eyes.  He caved a little under the look. 

 

“Nothing” he assured when he found his voice again. Arthur kept on looking on him and Merlin turned away his eyes. “I… I can write a CV if you want” he continued. 

 

“Good, I want it tomorrow” Arthur went right back to his papers. 

 

“Great…” it wasn’t Merlin’s intention to sound ironic. It’s just that Arthur pulled that side out of him. “I just start now then” he sighed and started to go to the desk in the office outside of Arthur’s own office. 

 

“No, you have to read through this reports, make sure they are correctly written and then write a summary on each” Merlin stared at Arthur as he offered him two thick sets of papers. The blonde man was actually looking at him now and damn him if his blue eyes still made Merlin's heart to skip a beat. “And book a meeting with Deaton Jones for tomorrow around lunch” Arthur said, making a motion with one hand, as if he just got the idea. 

 

“But… I don’t even know who that is!” he exclaimed throwing his hands in the air. 

 

“So?” Arthur looked bored, wiggling the papers a little. “Figure it out”. Merlin walked forward, grabbing the papers, making sure not to brush Arthur’s fingers as he went. He was pissed and he was planning to stay that way! And he wasn’t sure his hot boss probably warm, steady hands would help with that. 

 

Merlin stormed out. Or well didn’t storm, more like stomped out so loud he was sure Arthur heard him. 

 

The desk was nice at least, a comfortable chair, he noticed when he sat down and view over the hallway and Arthur where he was working by his desk. He looked through one of the reports and sighed dramatically as he threw it on the desk with a thud. 

 

He went through the speed dials on the phone and roamed around in all the drawers in search for a list of numbers or something similar that might help him find this Deaton Jones. After looking for over ten minutes he reached for his phone and called Gwen. He breathed out, relief coming over him when she picked up on the third signal. 

 

“Merlin? Aren’t you working?” Gwen’s voice sounded confused and worried. Not that it surprised Merlin, he had been fired quicker at other jobs he had. It wasn’t that he was a bad employee. He was just really clumsy, shy and had strong opinions. Too strong if you asked Gwen, but Merlin normally didn’t. 

 

“Well, yeah” Merlin huffed out air, half amused, as he tried to come up with a way to ask for help. “Do you know who Deaton Jones is?” he said finally. 

 

“Um. Yeah! Gwen said after a few seconds of silence. “He is a major contact for the business AgencyStack. He is the CCO” Gwen continued. Merlin stayed awkwardly silent for a few seconds, hoping she would get what was wrong. “He has the same work as Morgana” 

 

“Okay” Merlin replayed “any idea of how I can contact him?” he gave a short laugh again when Gwen got quiet on the other side of the phone. “Arthur is an ass, please, I need it” he begged.

 

“You know you can call me on the work phone if you have questions on work stuff, I thought something had happened” she scolded him but Merlin heard that she was only joking. 

 

“Will do, next time” he promised, teasing her. 

 

“Alright, I have his number here…” 

 

 

* * *

 

Gwen sighed when she hung up the phone. Merlin really was a hopeless case. Gwen knew that he would be a wonderful doctor, hopefully, will be one day, but he was too sassy to keep a job that paid enough for him to go through the last years of med school. 

 

“Gwen, can you come in here for a moment?” Morgana said through the open door. 

 

“Yes, on my way” Gwen picked up her notepad that she had learned to always have with her when she talked with someone of higher rank in the company and stepped into Morgana’s office, closing the door behind her. 

 

“Who were you talking to?” Morgana didn’t take her eyes off the screen but Gwen sat down anyway. She had quickly learned that Morgana didn’t do it to be unrespectful, she was just a busy woman that needed help and that’s why Gwen was here. 

 

“Oh, it was just Merlin, he needed some help” Gwen said, doing a little wave with her hand to show that it wasn’t anything important. Morgana glanced up at her. 

 

“My brother already pestering him, is he?” she asked, before she made a victorious sound and looked up from the computer. 

 

“He’s just… expecting a little too much of Merlin I think” Gwen answered carefully. Morgana was a nice boss and Gwen would like to call her friend one day but she didn’t want to say something that could cost either her or Merlin their jobs. 

 

“My brother always expect too much of everyone. Maybe with the exception of me, because I’m his family. You can’t blame him, though, father has always had the highest expectations on him and he actually works just as hard himself. He just needs to be kinder about it. Because right now he is a jerk” Morgana said it as if it was obvious and Gwen stared at her for a few seconds before she shook her head. 

 

“What do you want my help with” she asked, trying to not look too shocked. Morgana chuckled so she didn’t think she succeeded. 

 

“Ah, yes. I have a meeting tomorrow morning and I need a secretary. As my assistant it’s part of your job. I sent you a link about the company, read it until you know it. You get off an hour early today so that you can be here at seven thirty tomorrow. Alright?” Morgana said confidently. Gwen nodded and wrote down what she just had been asked, trying to not react to how early she would have to get up to prepare everything for a meeting that early.

 

“Yes, no problem. I will be at my desk for another two hours, do you want me to check in on you before I leave or do we see each other tomorrow?” she asked, glancing at the clock that hung on the wall behind her. 

 

“Check in with me before you leave, be so kind” Morgana answered already looking in to other files on her computer. 

 

“Of course” Gwen said before she left. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!   
> Leave Kudos if you like it, maybe even a comment? :)
> 
> And I want to ask if there is someone out there that would like to beta-read me. Just read what I've written and maybe discuss some ideas that I have for the story. Preferably someone that has English as a native language since I don't.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So. More bickering Pendragon siblings, because that's what we all love.  
> Plus that Merlin and Arthur start to become a little closer somewhat. Finally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! Sorry I haven't updated again but my school is crazy, you know the drill.  
> If you want more chapters with less time in between I suggest you comment. I know it's cliche but it's really inspirational to know that there are people out there that actually care about what you write. 
> 
> And while we are on it I want to give a big thank you and a huge hug to Charlyto that helped me make this chapter as good as it is. You are really a lifesaver girl and I can't say with words how much I appreciate you!! 
> 
> Hope you will enjoy this chapter, thank you everyone for reading! :)

Morgana smiled kindly at the man in front of her. It was nothing she wanted more than for him to leave, but she couldn’t say that, considering this contract meant much for the company.

“I would like to meet you sometime again” Deaton said, giving her a wolfish grin. Morgana had to force her smile not to fall from her lips. Arthur snorted behind her as he headed out, a sad looking Leon at his heels.

“I’m sorry, but I like to keep business and relationships apart” she answered as friendly as she could muster. Deaton gave a little nod, his brown hair with silver highlights touching his forehead. He was about twice the age as Morgana and on top of it all boring and way too competitive for his own good. Especially since Morgana herself was just as competitive and a lot smarter than him.

Gwen came up by her side, offering Deaton a smile that looked much more sincere than the one Morgana was sporting.

“And you young lady, I don’t assume I can take you out to dinner later?” Deaton asked, and this time Morgana did roll her eyes. Gwen, however, only offered a genuine smile and shook her head.

“I’m sorry but I kind of have a thing going on with my roommate. So, no” Deaton nodded again, this time finally giving up and leaving the two women alone.

“I have to admit, I thought Merlin was gay” Morgana said. She didn’t think so, she knew. Her gaydar had been screaming the moment she first met the guy. The raven-haired man couldn’t have been more obvious about his staring for the men in the group, either.

“Oh, he is. We just use each other as an excuse when we don’t want to date, have been doing it for years now. It’s a safe call because I know he wouldn’t object if asked. It’s our deal” Gwen said cheerfully. Morgana shook her head, smiling. She didn’t really know Gwen yet, but she wanted to. She liked working with people she knew she could trust.

“Did you write down what they said?” Morgana asked.

“Yes, everything important that affects our department. I know I probably should have written the other stuff down, too, but I was a little slow. I’m sure I can find a way to…” Gwen started apologetically.

“No, it’s fine. You’re new. You will learn. Trust me, it only takes a few times, I promise” she started following her brother and his companions to spend a few more hours behind her desk “I will need you to help me go through it after lunch, which means that you´ll have to stay late. I’ll make sure that you get off a bit earlier on Friday instead”

“Oh, it’s no problem at all Morgana, I like working” Gwen immediately assured her. With a smirk, Morgana stepped into the elevator beside her brother.

“We all know that´s a lie we tell ourselves to survive” she commented as Leon pressed on the right button. “No one likes to work overtime. Except maybe, Leon” she blinked playfully at the strawberry blonde man to her left. He gave her a quick smile before he looked at his feet.

“Well, I like work but I wouldn’t say that the overtime is my favorite part” he answered after a while, lifting his eyes to look at her again. Morgana couldn’t help but smile and turned her head away so that she was facing her brother instead.

“You see, you shouldn´t make Leon overwork himself so much” she said slyly, giving him a teasing look.

“I don’t particularly like overtime much either but I do it because I am the son of the company’s owner, and as you are his daughter you should do the same” Arthur deadpanned, clearly missing the point.

“As far as I´m aware, Leon isn´t my brother though” Morgana shot back. Gwaine snorted behind her and she glared at him. She wasn’t sure but she had a feeling he had figured out what she felt towards Leon and she didn’t want him to reveal anything to Arthur.

“You don´t have anything against overtime, do you Leon?” Arthur looked at his friend in the eye and Morgana could see that the question was, on some level, sincere. It was a question asked between two longtime friends, not just a command from a boss to an employee. That was one of the things she admired most about her brother. He had a fine line between friendship and employment and he rarely crossed it.

“Not at all, pay´s good and you know I would give my life for this company” the forever trustworthy Leon answered and Morgana smiled again.

“Let’s hope it does not come to that” Arthur commented dryly, even though there was a hint of laughter in his voice. “Do you mind working overtime, Guinevere?” her brother asked then, turning towards the dark-skinned girl.  
  
“Haven’t tried it yet, but I’m sure I will enjoy it when we get there” Gwen said with a smile. Morgana rolled her eyes and pressed herself past Arthur out of the elevator.

“You don’t have to impress him, Gwen, he is just bumptious” Morgana commented.  
Arthur gave her an unimpressed look when they stopped outside her office, facing each other. Leon came to a halt about half a meter behind him while Gwaine lazily leaned against a wall.

“Oh I don’t know, I think she has the right attitude” Arthur smirked at Gwen, who stood beside Morgana. The blush that spread on the younger woman’s cheeks was both adorable and a little alarming. The last thing she needed was for another of her assistants to sleep with her brother.

“Um” Gwen pulled at her hair, glancing at Morgana. She tried to look natural and not laugh, but watching Gwaine cackle behind his hair didn’t help her cause at all. “Thank you, Mr. Pendragon.”

“No need to call me that, Guinevere” Arthur winked. Morgana shot him a warning look and he lifted an amused eyebrow in response before nodding both of them goodbye. “I will see you around”. As on cue, he and Leon left, Leon giving them an apologetic smile. Gwaine went off after them, still grinning like a mad man and sending a complicit wink in her direction. She laughed and waved him off.

* * *

“So, what to do now?” Arthur asked, looking him straight in the eye. Merlin opened his mouth, desperate to say something, anything really, but he couldn’t. Because he had literally walked in two minutes ago and he had absolutely no idea what Arthur was talking about!

“Well, I´m not sure…” Merlin started, stumbling a little over his own words.

“No, of course you don’t, because you weren’t here” he deadpanned, sitting down.

“No… because my schedule showed I didn’t start until 8:30 today, so I guess you´ll have to complain with the guy in charge of arranging it. Oh… that would be you” Merlin retorted sarcastically, sending Arthur’s face a quick glare before setting his sight back on that imaginary spot over his right shoulder. He had learned, after the last few days, that this was easier than actually looking the handsome bastard in the eyes. That just made him confused.

“You should always be early, Merlin. Always be early. I have no use for someone who isn’t here when I need him” Arthur snapped, picking furiously at the papers on his desk. Merlin dared look at his face one more time to take in his features. He looked stressed. Like, more stressed than usual, and that's saying something.

“But if I´m always early, I’ll never be on time” Merlin replied slyly, almost succeeding in hiding his smile. Arthur shot him a withering look.

“Always be early, Merlin. You understand me?”

He swallowed.

“Yes, absolutely” he answered, honestly. He couldn’t promise he would always be able to do it, he had a habit of running late on mornings, but he understood what Arthur was asking of him.

“Absolutely…” Arthur made a motion with one hand and lifted an eyebrow at Merlin.

“Absolutely…” Merlin repeated, slowly, because he had no idea what Arthur was talking about. Was he supposed to say something else?

“That’s ‘sir’ for you, Merlin” oh, of course, he had to say Merlin’s name like that. Like this wasn’t bad enough as it was. He quickly shook his head, emptying it from thoughts.

“Oh. Alright” Merlin said, shrugging. They stared at each other for a minute, but when Arthur didn’t say anything else Merlin slowly started to leave, thinking that Arthur was done with him.

“Absolutely, sir, Merlin!” Arthur shouted after him, but Merlin disappeared through the door. He still had a lot of pending work to do from all the assignments Arthur had given him yesterday, and he had to be finished with it today because he was at Gwaine’s service tomorrow.

Gwaine had been easier to work with than Arthur, more relaxed, and he didn’t bark at Merlin at every chance he got; but it was clear that, between them, Arthur was the one that pulled the heavy load.

Nonetheless, Merlin had enjoyed working with Gwaine and he dared say they were on the way to becoming good friends. Unlike him and the prat in the other room.

Merlin felt childish sticking his tongue out at Arthur´s closed door, but he couldn’t resist. It wasn’t until he was almost seated at his desk and had noticed Arthur’s unimpressed stare through the glass that Merlin realized half of the wall was a window. And that Arthur totally had seen him do that.

Arthur was still looking. Why was Arthur still looking? Oh yeah, right, Merlin was still staring at him. With his mouth open.

Merlin slammed his mouth shut and quickly looked away. His face was burning and he could only imagine how red his ears must be. Great. He had embarrassed himself in front of his hot boss. Again.

* * *

Merlin turned away too quickly to see the smirk that had spread on Arthur’s lips. He chuckled and shook his head. He was starting to like this boy. Man.

Maybe, had it been under different circumstances, they could have become good friends. If Arthur wasn’t the boss’s son, if he wasn’t about to take over a company and needed the best employees to do so, he would have tried to befriend Merlin. He was witty and smart-mouthed. A little too smart mouthed at times. The sarcasm he is always rocking was funny as well. At the right times.

However, Merlin was adorable when he was flustered. With those big, red ears he was like a child. But cuter. Okay, maybe not. Arthur actually liked kids, but Merlin was adorable in a whole new level. It was almost a little frustrating. Arthur would never be that adorable. Not that he needed to, he was hot af and he knew it. But having some of Merlin’s looks wouldn’t hurt. He would skip the ears, though. Those looked hideous.

When he walked into his apartment hours later, he wasn’t at all surprised to see Morgana sitting in her usual corner of the couch in the living room, or Gwaine laying sprawled out on the other end.

They usually ended up at his place. Morgana’s apartment was just a big as his, with a big hallway you stepped into directly from the elevator, two gigantic bedrooms with associated luxury bathrooms, a topnotch kitchen, a big office, a laundry room and a living room with way to much space, but she had at multiplied occasions told them she didn’t want them there. Gwaine lived on the floor below Morgana´s, sharing it with two conference rooms. His apartment was considerably smaller and always messy. So this is where they spent their nights.

“You’re late. It’s nine already. You are supposed to have breakfast with dad tomorrow and we still have to go through the proposal. You are not going to get enough sleep” Morgana said reproachfully before he even could open his mouth to speak.

“Don’t worry about my sleeping schedule, I got it under control” Arthur answered coldly, walking to the kitchen to get a cup coffee that he knew Morgana had prepared. None of them was caffeine sensitive and at times like this they both needed it to function properly. Arthur took his with a spoonful of sugar, not particularly into the bitter taste, while Morgana took hers pitch black. Other than that, there was no difference.

“If you say so” Morgana retorted, dryly. Arthur could clearly hear the irony dripping from her tone and grimaced at it. When he walked back into the living room with his mug and sat down, Gwaine was studying him.

“Dude, she’s right. You are going to work yourself into the wall if you keep this up. Believe me, I saw it happen to dad” Gwaine commented.

“I have it under control! I start late on Saturday so I will sleep then. Right now we need to go through this proposal. Where are Leon and Lance?” Arthur snapped, slamming his hand against the arm of the armchair. Both Morgana and Gwaine went silent.

“Right here, boss” Leon said, stepping into the living room from the hall. If Arthur hadn’t shouted he probably would have heard the door open.

“Sorry, we had work to finish” Lance continued, a little quieter than necessary. He was always a little wary around Arthur, even though they were friends. Normally Arthur took this as a compliment, he was a powerful man after all, but right now it only managed to irritate him more.

“Okay, let’s do this!” Morgana jumped in before Arthur could open his mouth again, pushing a groaning Gwaine’s feet off the sofa so that Leon could take their place beside her, while Lancelot sat down on the two-man couch at the end of the table.

“Alright, I think I have an idea…” Leon started, but Arthur’s mind floated away from the conversation. He was tired, his head felt heavy… and he couldn´t stop thinking about black hair and big eyes.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, not so much Merthur in this chapter. But Gwencelot is back! And we finally get to see Percival and Gwaine together. I really hope you like it, please leave Kudos if you do!! :)

“And he is just so annoying… and bumptious. And a prat!!” Merlin grumbled as he paced the room.

 

“Then why do you talk so much about him, if he is so annoying?” Gaius commented, not even looking up from what he was doing.

 

Gaius, the company’s physician, who was also Merlin’s uncle, or well, kind of uncle, had been a good friend and mentor of Merlin’s father, Balinor Emerys, who died on the field when Merlin was still young. Ever since, Gaius had taken it upon himself to fulfill the role of father figure for Merlin.

 

“That’s because he is a jerk and I can’t say it to his face because everybody here behaves like he is the crown prince or something and…” Merlin rambled on, not the least discouraged by Gaius indifferent answers.

 

“Well he kind of is, Merlin” Gaius cut him off, giving him a scolding look. “Which is why you shouldn’t call him that at all”.

 

Merlin shot him an exasperated look.

 

“But he is a prat, Gaius! Have you heard the man talk?” he whined, stopping and making big motions with his hands before resuming his frantic pace.

 

“Yes, I have. He is actually pretty good at getting the employees to like him. Almost everyone who works here like both him and Morgana” the older man said in a strict tone.

 

“But all he ever does is bark orders, how could anyone like that?!” Merlin knew he was straight up wailing now, but yesterday had been worse than usual. He had been working with Arthur for a week and a half and while he normally was bossy and difficult he had been right down snappish and rude yesterday.

 

“It’s his duty as the CCO and son of the owner to bark orders, Merlin. He has been taught to do it since he was a child. You cannot blame him for it” Gaius lectured, moving two flasks filled with slimy substances to his left before lifting another jar of pills to his eyes.

 

“It’s his duty!? Is it also his duty to order people to polish his shoes as well?” Merlin hissed, dramatically flopping down on a chair.

 

“He can order you to do whatever he wants, he is our boss” Gaius continued, seemingly unaffected by Merlin’s anger.

 

“Yes, well, of course he can! He is the freaking prince of the castle, isn’t he? And if I go around all day cleaning up after him, it’s my duty! My question is, why is it so unfair? To bark order seems pretty easy compared to booking and rebooking all his meetings and keeping track of his schedule because apparently, that isn’t a part of his duty!”

 

And as to further accentuate his displeasure, he bit down aggressively into the sandwich in his hand. It was Gaius lunch, he guessed, tuna fish. He hated tuna fish. But Gaius sensed he hadn’t eaten any breakfast this morning so he gave it to Merlin and he knew better than to protest.

 

“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” Gaius sighed, giving Merlin his infamous eyebrow.

 

“In ten minutes, it only takes four minutes to get from here to there” Merlin answered, crumbs falling from his mouth. Gwaine had let him start an hour later than usual. He said it was because he pitied Merlin, but Merlin suspected it was just because Gwaine was lazy. Or, at least, that’s what Arthur had told him.

 

“Only if the elevator comes right away, what if someone uses it?” Gaius asked. Merlin turned away from his pointing look.

 

“Alright, alright, I’m leaving. You don’t want me here anyway” Merlin said ironically, waving his hands in front of him in a dramatic gesture.

 

“Just go, Merlin” Gaius answered with a huff, still not looking up. Merlin gave the back of his head a big victorious grin when the elevator came right away.

 

-o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o-

 

Gwaine took a deep breath. Today was the day. Operation seducing Percival was officially in motion. 

 

He quickly checked his hair in the reflection of a car window and blinked at himself encouragingly before stepping inside the doors of Camelot. The man in question looked up from where he stood by the door, looking first vigilant and then a little flustered when he caught the grin Gwaine sent his way.

 

“You know” Gwaine began “I feel so much safer with you here” he walked towards Percival so that either the man had to back away or they would be standing nose to nose. Or at least that had been Gwaine’s plan. Now he realized that Percival was more than a head taller than him, so he ended up staring into his muscular chest.

 

Disappointed, he took a step back. Percival gave him a questioning look, lowering his head so that he could look Gwaine straight in the eye because they were still standing pretty close. The guard's posture was rigid and his eyes flickered a little. Gwaine felt a pang in his chest. It hit him then: Percival was insecure and clearly uncomfortable around him.

 

“Thank you, sir. It’s very kind of you to say so” he said, offering Gwaine a shy smile, a little red around the ears and down the collar of his shirt.

 

“No… problem” Gwaine stammers, taking another step back, growing frustrated when he still has to bend his neck to look Percival in the eyes.

 

“I think Merlin came in half an hour ago and, if I may, Sir, you are a little late today so maybe you shouldn’t waste your time on me” Percival continued, still looking at Gwaine, never letting his gaze falter.

 

Never before had Gwaine felt so little. Metaphorically or literally. He was rather proud of the number of people he could attract with a sentence or less. He was a sweet talker, mostly being all mouth and no action when it came to his lovers.

 

He didn’t even brag when he said that at least two-thirds of all the people he approached with those intentions were or had been in his bed the same night.

 

He isn’t saying that all those people believed in his words, sometimes he felt rather sorry for the poor souls who did, but he was so good at picking the right ones that he usually just needed to sweet talk them a little, buy them a drink and then offer and they would throw themselves at him. Just like he wanted it. 

 

It was just that sometimes he liked a real challenge. Getting a strong woman in bed or a closeted man to cave in. He wasn’t sure if Percival was gay, or, if so, a closeted one, but he did know that he pulled Gwaine to him and that Gwaine wanted him. A lot.

 

“I hardly see how anyone could think that being with you would be a waste of time” he said when his bafflement went down, but it was much too late to sound sincere or flirtatious, coming out more like a bad compliment. He cringed internally at his lame attempt at seduction, strongly wishing he could kick his own backside.

 

He had sweet-talked a woman outside just a few minutes ago, hence the reason he was a little late, and that had gone splendidly and now he couldn’t even get a sentence out without sounding like a creep.

 

“Well, I’m not sure that your boss would agree to that” Percival said, relentless, still far too rigid and trying to keep a blank expression even though Gwaine could see the blush on his neck.

 

Gwaine grinned mischievously, taking another two steps back and flipping his hair over his shoulder. With his hands on his hips he measured the man in front of him.

 

“You do know that I am my own boss right? Arthur, Morgana and me. We don’t have bosses” he commented, voice teasing. For him it wasn’t that important but he loved making people uncomfortable by telling them that he was an equal with Arthur. It worked this time, too. The blush that had been barely visible before bloomed furiously on the bigger man’s face and he stammered.

 

“I… I thought Arthur… I am so sorry, Sir” his voice was so low by the end that Gwaine could hardly hear him. His Cheshire cat grin widened even more.

 

“That's no problem, Mr.” he commented dryly, though he couldn’t help but blink at the, clearly, ashamed man in front of him before he turned on his heels, his hair flying graciously behind him as he walked to the elevator.

 

-o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o-

 

Gwen smiled sweetly at Leon when she met him at the door to Morgana’s office. He smiled back, of course, but his eyes were already focused on the woman in question and Gwen knew he hadn’t really seen her.

 

Ever since her first day she had been sure something was going on between Morgana and Leon. She was surprised to see that the only other person who even seemed to realize this was Gwaine.

 

It’s not that they weren’t discreet. Quite the contrary, they were so discreet that they couldn’t even figure it out themselves. It was just the small things. Like how Morgana, who constantly asserted her reputation in the company as ‘the ice queen’,  always would tease Leon gently; and how Leon, who was loyal and focused, couldn’t seem to completely let her go whenever they were in the same room.

 

She closed the door, giving them some privacy for their weird flirting ritual and walked out into the corridor, a cold caffe latte in hand. She had bought it this morning but hadn’t had a chance to drink it yet.

 

She sat down on the floor, cross-legged, happy that she, for once, was dressed in fitting black trousers with a beige, off the shoulder top and a chain around her neck. Morgana had told her that today was an easy day so she didn’t need to dress up to the nine. Unfortunately, this just served to make Gwen even more insecure on how to dress. She still wasn’t sure if this was okay or not. At least Morgana hadn’t commented, so it couldn’t be that bad.

 

“Hello, Guinevere” a deep voice said from above her. Gwen’s pulse skipped a beat.

 

“Hi Lancelot” she answered, losing her breath as she looked into his deep, brown eyes. They stood there for a second, just looking at each other, both unsure of what to do next.

 

“Is Leon with Morgana?” he asked, pointing to the door through which she had just left and Gwen was once again fascinated by the layout off the offices, preventing Lancelot from seeing Morgana.

 

“Yes” she commented easily, taking a sip off her coffee. After a few moments of awkward silence, Gwen gestured to the floor beside her. “Want to join me? You can catch him on his way out” she suggested.

 

“Yeah” Lancelot said, maybe a little too quickly. He stood there for a few more seconds before he, at her questioning look, smiled a sheepish grin and slid down beside her.

 

Gwen offered him a teasing smile when he looked at her and he smiled back with the same candor, lifting his own cup of what seemed to be hot coffee up to his mouth.

 

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, what is a lady like you doing sitting in the corridor?” Lancelot asked, holding her gaze. Gwen had to look away after a little while, a blush dusting her cheeks with a faint pink color.

 

“I’m not a lady” she commented, twisting a string of her hair with her finger and breathing out a little huff of air.

 

“Oh…” The pause after Lancelot’s embarrassed sound was a little too long and as Gwen looked up, he stared at her with beautiful bottomless eyes, a look of wonder on his face.  “I’m sorry. I wasn’t… thinking” he stumbled a little over the last sentence and Gwen found it absolutely adorable.

 

“No, it’s okay” she reassured him. The butterflies in her stomach danced upwards, fluttering freely in her chest as Lancelot smiled. “I’m just… ah, giving them a little more privacy, I guess” she continued, shaking her head to make herself focus.

 

“You noticed that too, then? I thought I was the only one” an amused, quick breath left Lancelot’s mouth “but don‘t expect anything of it, they have been like this for at least a year now. No change at all” he actually laughed this time and it sounded so thoroughly beautiful that Gwen lost her breath yet again, her gaze fixed on the dimples that formed on his cheeks when he smiled.

 

“Maybe they haven’t had their timing yet” Gwen said mostly to herself as she kept on studying Lancelot’s face.

 

“What?” The brunette turned to look at her inquisitively and Gwen got the illusion that all the air between them had been sucked out.

 

“I believe that the people who are meant to be together need to have the right timing. Sometimes it’s love at first sight, other times it’s a growing process or maybe, in some tragic cases, being unhappy for a long time before you can end up with your soulmate”. She looked up at him, hesitantly. Gwen had never discussed her views of love before, not even with Merlin, too afraid that someone would ruin it for her.

 

“You really believe that?” Lancelot asked, but he didn’t sound surprised or judgemental. His tone was one of sincere amazement, eyes bright with wonder.

 

“Yes” she answered, breathless. They sat there for what seemed like an eternity, gazing into each other’s eyes. Gwen couldn’t help but wonder if this is how it felt to finally find your home.

 

The office door opens behind them and Leon steps out, shooting them an odd look when he sees them on the floor, coffee cups still full in their hands.

 

“Ah, Leon” Lancelot cleared his throat “I need to talk to you” he continued, slowly rising from the ground and offering Gwen a strong hand that she gladly takes in her own.

 

“Okay. Let’s go to my office” the other man said, still looking inquiringly at them. Lancelot nodded his response and Leon left.

 

“Well, I have to go, my lady” he said to Guinevere, lifting her hand to his lips. “I hope that you get everything you are looking for” he whispered right before he pressed a soft kiss to her skin. He left then, sending her one last glance over his shoulder. She breathed out a tremulous sigh, covering her hand with the other and pressing it tightly against her chest. She could feel her pulse racing under them. 

 


End file.
